Teleworkers and their use of an enterprise social networking platform

Abstract

This study surveyed teleworker usage of a social networking platform within an enterprise. Compared to on-campus employees, teleworkers exhibited earlier adoption, higher percentage of contributions, more variance in work hours, and lower membership in socially-oriented groups (versus work focused groups). The last result seems counterintuitive, and we propose two possible reasons for this phenomenon: the perceived need to cultivate an external perception of productivity, and lack of access to social events tied to specific geographic office locations. In addition, we provide insights, gleaned from interviews, into teleworker use of collaboration tools.